Walking in My Family's Shadow
by TeddyBearHuggles
Summary: Judith Grimes is the last surviving member of her biological family. Her mother Lori died giving birth to her, her brother Carl attacked by walkers, and her father Rick being put down by someone he considered family. Now 12 years old, Judith continues to survive with the people that her father led before her, meeting new friends along the way. But how long can she survive?
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N:**_ …

_**POV:**_ …

_**Pairing:**_ _None_

I had it in my sights. I had it right in my sights. Walking slowly as to not alarm the deer a few yards in from of me that I was tracking, I cautiously moved through the trees. Glancing down every now and then to make sure I didn't step on too many branches, I kept the crossbow right at the aim, my arms steady.

_Snap!_

'_Shit!'_

The deer heard the branch under my feet break and tensed up, looking around. Stopping so it wouldn't see me. I waited and waited for it to calm down once more before I started again. The brown animal looked back and forth a few times, it's ears twitching as it tried to listen in to me. I steadied my breath as much as possible, enough so that I was barely even breathing. Finally after what seemed like forever, it looked down once more and continued feeding on the grass. Relaxing slightly, but not enough that I was out of my stance, I continued my walk towards it as well as to the side. Staying in direct eyesight was something I learned not to do very many times. This time, I was much more careful about where I placed my feet. Slowly and cautiously I made my way closer, stopping once I got close enough for a good shot, but far away enough that it would see me. Putting my finger on the trigger, I aimed the crossbow at it's stomach.

'_I'm sorry, but we need to eat.'_

Squinting one eye closed so I knew I was right on target, I just started to put pressure on the trigger before I hear rustling behind me. And a growl. Both of my eyes snapped open and I turned, but I wasn't quick enough. A walker hissed and snarled as it came onto me, pushing me down. Letting out a short scream as I fell, the wind got knocked out of me upon impact. Right away, I began to struggle against the thing, but it was a newer one. And newer ones were always much more stronger than the ones that have been around for so many years. Yelping as the walker grabbed onto my arm and tried to bit me, I raised my leg up and tried to push it off that way. Sure, it's bottom half was being lifted up, but my attempt did nothing for the top half of it. Struggling, I patted the ground next to me in search of the crossbow, dropping it when the walker attacked me. I hit it a few times, but couldn't seem to get a grip on it. And the walker was only getting closer to me.

"Get off!" I yelled, using both of my hands and my feet to push at the walker. It stumbled off me and I rolled away, trying to get the knife out of it's sheath. After struggling for a moment, I managed to free it and turned, fully ready to get the walker right in the head with it. However, there was no need for that, cause someone beat me to it. He pulled the knife out of the walkers head, breathing heavily as he looked at me.

"Judith, you know damn well not to go out anywhere without me!" Daryl Dixon scolded me as he attempted to catch his breath.

_**A/N: **__So, this idea was in my brain, and now it's on the internet. I just wanted to upload a preview of this story and see if people actually like it. The main character is Judith and yes, a lot of the main characters that we all know and love have died, since she's now 12 years old. There'll be a lot of made up characters that develop in this little story of mine, and people might not like that. But just send me feedback either in the reviews or a message, I'd love to hear what people think (:_


	2. Chapter 2

_**A:N:**_ _Did you guys think that it was Daryl hunting in the last chapter? I was hoping to confuse everyone haha Probably didn't work! Oh well. I'm not sure how often I'll update this story, but I just wanted to get it started since I really like the idea, and I hope other people do as well._

_**Spoilers**__: Now, I know people think the description contains spoilers, but I just created that for the story. If you are not up to date with the show I just wanted you to know that I made up Carl and Rick dying that way. It was just for the sake of my story haha And as for Lori's death, if you know Judith, then you know what happened to Lori. The story may or may not contain spoilers, I'm not sure. I sort of make things up as I go. As I said in the last chapter, most characters are going to be made up by me ^^_

_**POV:**_ _Judith_

_**Pairing:**_ _None_

"I knew if I told you I was going out, you'd come with me," I replied to Daryl as I grabbed his outstretched hand and pulled myself up. Sighing softly, I dusted myself off, mainly my back and bottom. The sleeves of my shirt were white, and they had gotten the walkers blood on them. Wonderful.

"That don't matter. If you wanna go out, you tell me. I made a promise to your daddy that I'd look out for you," Daryl replied with a glare in my direction. He held that glare on me for a few moments before leaning down and picking up his crossbow that I had taken from his room. Putting my knife back into it's sheth, I shrugged my shoulders.

"I can take care of myself," I muttered, realizing after I said it that it was a damn stupid thing to say. Especially around Daryl. He turned back to look at me, pointing a finger right at me.

"You say that now, but you know that most people that say that end up dying soon after they say that. Look at what happened to Sasha. To Glenn. To...to Aaron. They're all dead now cause they said that same thing," Daryl replied, turning away, then looking back at me,"And don't sneak in my room for this again, dumb girl." I knew that I had upset Daryl, and I felt bad for it. I didn't know much about Sasha or Glenn, but they had died during the time that Alexandria had fallen apart, when I was still a baby. Sasha was murdered and Glenn was bitten. As for Aaron, I knew Aaron. He was the one that brought the group to Alexandria, and he left with us after it fell apart. He had died when I was 9 years old, beaten to death. No one was sure why they beat him like they did, but we all thought it was because he was gay. Poor Eric was heartbroken as well as Daryl. Aaron and Daryl had become really close friends throughout the years, and losing him hit Daryl about as hard as it hit Eric. Sighing heavily, I walked over to Daryl, who was listening around the area for more walkers.

"I handle the crossbow better than a gun. And your crossbow is the only one we have," I replied to him in an attempt to explain myself. Daryl had been teaching me how to hunt since I was 8 years old. I still wasn't the best, since most of the 4 years since he's been teaching me we've been running from place to place. But I could track a large animal pretty well and could tell a walkers marks from a person's marks. Which, in my eyes, was pretty impressive since Daryl and I are the only ones that can do that. Daryl looks at me and rolled his eyes.

"Don't mean you can take it without permission," he replied in a gruff voice, beginning to walk away from me. Once again, my shoulders dropped and I remained right where I was. I had made him mad once again. Sure, it wasn't hard to get Daryl angry, but normally he was much more laid back when it came to me. Probably because now I considered him my guardian. To me, he was like an uncle, since my father and him were like brothers. Running my fingers through my ponytail, I glanced over to the area the deer had been at. It was gone. Of course it was, the walker scared it off when it attacked me. Stupid things.

"Hey, little ass kicker! Ain't got time to wait around all day!" Daryl yelled to me, catching my attention. He stood a few yards in from of me, waiting patiently. His gaze had soften as well and I knew he wasn't too angry with me anymore. Especially since he used the nickname that he gave me when I was born. Smiling, I hurried over to him, placing my hands in my back pockets once there.

"We have others shirts my size back at the camp right? The walker got it's blood on my sleeves," I asked him in a slight pout, looking at my sleeves. He looked over as well, touching my sleeves as he examined them.

"Probably can get that out. But we don't want you shirtless while it's getting washed. There should be something, Hailey's bout your size. She'll have something," he replied, wiping my arm slightly before taking his hands off me. I nodded to him, tucking my dirty blonde hair that had gotten loose from my ponytail behind my ear.

"Okay. The question is though, will she let me borrow something?" I replied with a wink over at him. Hailey was certainly a hog about clothes even though she was born only a year after I was. It's not too often you find people that are crazy about clothes now a days.

"If she doesn't, you can borrow one of my t shirts," Daryl replied with a shrug. That made me smile slightly and nod. Normally that's what I slept in anyways. It was normally always one of Daryl's, my brothers or my fathers shirt. It just made me feel slightly better, I wasn't sure why.

"Thanks Daryl," I replied, taking one of my hands out of my back pockets and taking one of his. He didn't reply at all for a moment, and I was sure I'd upset him again. However, after a moment he just grunted in reply, gently taking my hand back, which made me smile. I was the only one besides Eric and Aaron that he was this way with, and it made me feel really good. It wasn't long before we made our way out of the woods and onto the highway where our camp was set up for the moment. It wasn't too far away from where we were and I could already hear Julian and June's laughter from where we were. In such a day as this, it was a refreshing sound to hear. It wasn't too often you heard a child's laughter anymore.


End file.
